Traditionally, Secretaries of State receive a personal protection detail from the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service (DSS). However, Henry Kissinger…
The Chile Burn Victims Case: Containment vs. Human Rights under Pinochet
During a 1986 protest in Santiago, Chile against the human rights abuses of Augusto Pinochet’s regime, teenagers setting up barricades…
Billion-Dollar “Plan Colombia” to End Decades of Civil War
Published January 2016 A guerrilla organization known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias…
At War with Colombian Drug Barons
The worldwide increase in demand for recreational drugs in the 1960s and 1970s prompted drug barons in Colombia to ramp…
Sue McCourt Cobb: Ambassador and Summiteer of Mt. Everest
Climbing Mount Everest has long been the epitome of physical and mental endurance. Since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became…
John Foster Dulles – Master Craftsman, Man of Paradox
President Dwight Eisenhower appointed John Foster Dulles as Secretary of State in January 1953, a job he held until almost…
The Coup Against Iran’s Mohammad Mossadegh
Mohammad Mossadegh became Prime Minister of Iran in 1951 and was hugely popular for taking a stand against the Anglo-Iranian Oil…
A Flood of Cuban Migrants — The Mariel Boatlift, April-October 1980
One of the most contentious events in mass migration started on April 1, 1980 when several Cubans took control of…
Brazil’s Long Detour on the Road to Democracy
Brazil’s path to democracy was far from perfect and often tortuous. In 1961, a “possibly half insane” Janio Quadros was…
Argentina’s Dirty War and the Transition to Democracy
It was one of the darkest periods in Latin American history. From 1976-1983, a brutal military junta ruled Argentina in…